Patients are being miserably failed, Ombudsman warns

For most the experience is trouble-free; but some are being let down when leaving hospital for the comforts of home and familyCredit:
Alamy

Going to hospital can be a daunting experience for anyone. But for frail and older people or those with complex needs, it can be a particularly frightening and uncertain time. For most the experience is trouble-free; but some are being let down when leaving hospital for the comforts of home and family.

We highlight a frail woman in her 80s with Parkinson’s disease and dementia, sent home despite falling frequently and being unable to cope on her own. We show how an 85-year-old woman with dementia was sent home without being able to look after herself with no food or drink and unable to get to the toilet.

As the independent organisation responsible for making final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England, we see the human cost of such mistakes and that it can be traumatic and long-lasting. The stories told in our report catalogue misery and distress as a result of poor or absent care. They show that more can and should be done to treat patients with dignity, and think of those closest to them as allies, not outsiders.

'The stories told in our report catalogue misery and distress as a result of poor or absent care'Dame Julie Mellor, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

People tell us how their loved ones’ experience of leaving hospital added to their pain and grieving. One woman captured the sentiment of many, saying she would be “haunted for the rest of her life” by her mother’s avoidable suffering prior to her death.

We see too many cases where that suffering could have been reduced or avoided altogether had hospitals and community health and social care services properly planned and prepared for patients’ safe return home. Right now, failures in communication, assessment and service coordination are compromising patient safety and dignity. They are undermining patients’ human rights and causing avoidable distress and anguish for their families and carers.

We don’t deny that health and social care services face significant pressures. Nor that real effort is being made at a national level to improve discharge practices. But despite more than a decade of consistent best practice guidance on the discharge process, the problem continues to grow.

Health and social care leaders must get a grip on this to uncover why ten years of guidance to prevent unsafe discharge is not being followed, causing misery and distress for patients, families and carers.